Conventional skylights are generally mounted to structures known as curbs which are attached to the roof of a building and provide a vertical extension upwards to minimize water infiltration into the skylights during heavy rains or heavy snowfall conditions. These curbs are generally painted white on their inner surfaces to partially reflect the sunlight that hits these curbs in an attempt to recover a portion of the light losses which are caused by these curbs. However, since white paint is a diffuse reflector, almost half of the light that is reflected from the curb surfaces goes upward rather than downward into the building to be illuminated by the skylight. So conventional curbs are inefficient optical devices for use with skylights to provide natural daylighting for the building below the curbs.
A partially specular reflector, such as aluminized polyester film, placed on the interior surface of the curb, would alleviate a significant portion of the light losses due to the diffuse white curb surface. However, such partially specular reflector surfaces are relatively delicate and could be easily damaged during shipping and installation of the curb. For example, many structural curbs are welded to the joists that support the roof of the building during installation, and the hot debris from welding would damage or destroy the delicate partially specular reflector surface is this surface was present during curb installation. Similarly, painting of the ceiling inside the building during construction could cause overspray onto the partially specular reflector surface, degrading its optical performance. An ideal solution to this problem would be a partially specular reflector assembly that could be easily installed from the roof after the curbs were welded in place and after the interior ceiling of the building had been painted. However, most curbs are installed with welded safety grids near the top of the curb to prevent personnel injuries from falling through the open curb into the building below.
These welded safety grids generally have small openings on the order of 6 inches by 6 inches in size. The interior curb surfaces are generally several feet long by more than 1 foot tall, and a partially specular reflector of this size would not fit through the small openings in the safety grid, necessitating installation from below, which is problematic. Installation from below requires personnel lifts to roof level, and tight working conditions inside the curb. The lifts would need to be moved from skylight to skylight over the entire building, moreover merchandise, equipment, etc. may need to be relocated, and thus labor time and cost would therefore be high for this approach.
Fortunately, the subject matter disclosed herein solves the problem of installing specular reflector assemblies from the roof even when a safety grid with small openings is present near the top of the curb.